Devotion

What is Bhakti? It can be generally translated as devotion and Webster gives 'religious fervour' as its meaning. Does this mean that atheists cannot have devotion? How can explain this to different people from different walks of life? Most of all, how can we explain this to children who are influenced by what their parents think?

Theists - It is very easy to reach out to theists and say: devotion or bhakti is that belief that you have in God which directs certain actions (puja, prayers etc) in your everyday living.

Atheists - One has to leave out God equation and explain devotion in terms of concentration on activities close to one's heart.

Children - Now this is the tricky part. Children are always forever trying to assess what to take forward to their adult years. Some children don't want to believe in God because their parents don't believe and their acceptance is of utmost importance. Some children implicitly believe what their parents say. Yet others are skeptical and more inclined to go by what their teacher says.

I think bhakti should mean devotion to anything and everything. The passion with which we do our day to day work is bhakti. Cooking with bhakti gives a wonderful flavour to the food. Reading with bhakti gives a better understanding. Working with bhakti improves productivity. So why should bhakti or devotion have to be explained in religious terms?

Life moves on

A long gap of more than year in my posts... yet, life moves on at a pace that is baffling at times. Lots have happened in this year.
I stopped posting when I sent my younger one to school!! Okay, that sounds actually weird when I put it down in writing. Why?? I should have actually had more time to post more frequently... and yet I did not!
Ah! I found a better use of my time :-) And what was that?

1. SURFING THE NET.
2. Reading blogs
3. Reading recipe blogs
4. Updating my sanskrit blog on and off (advantages of having a co-writer)
   
5. Most of all, PLAYING FARMVILLE, FISHVILLE, TREASUREVILLE and all the nonsensevilles that I can lay my hands on.

I sat before the idiot box with a laptop on my lap and reclining on my recliner (with an ottoman... without it the recliner is an utter waste). I definitely, definitely have to, definitely have to scrap no. 5 from the list, definitely. But these zynga and facebook guys keep dishing out newer games to get us hooked on to.

Time, the culprit

6.50 am Hari wakes up and says "I want the computer". Hey! first brush your teeth, then take a bath, then eat breakfast and then if you have time, we'll see.

For about half an hour I don't hear anything and I am busy getting breakfast and lunch ready. Suddenly I look at the time...

7.20 am HARI!!! WHERE ARE YOU?? YOU OUGHT TO BE AT THE TABLE NOW. OK MOM! Let me finish bathing.

I am at my wits end. I shout at the top of my voice in an effort to get something across. "Its going to be 7.30 and you have to leave at 7.50 am".

7.22 am Dad shows his face inside the bathroom and asks hari, "why are you making your mom shout?"

PAT came a reply, "I am not making mom shout. Its the time!"

Career problems for a 6 yr old

Not one morning passes by without Hari's polambals. He has to say atleast 23 times "I don't want to go school". These would be followed by lectures on
1. Its good for you
2. You don't want to be illiterate. Do you?
3. Don't you want to be a tech director like appa?
4. You have to do some work or the other to survive.
etc.. etc..

My next strategy was - "you have to look after cows." I was stunned when he said ok. Thats where Bala came in and dropped the right sentence "looking after cows means cleaning cowdung too!!" "oops" That was something my 6 year old could not imagine. The bum-cleaning is mommy's job. How can he do that? Okay, Mom, lets make a deal. I will take care of the cows, but the cleaning part, why don't you do it as always?

When that did not get any response from me, hari decided he will work at home like his mom. WOW! somebody wants to be like me! Thats something, coming from Hari who adores his dad! Now how do I tackle this? Lets see, ah ha, the bum cleaning comes again. Hari you have to clean your bro's diaper. Hows that? hmm.. now this is getting even more difficult.

Okay mom, Where's my uniform!!